Family is Family No Matter What Has Happened
by WraithLoverQueen
Summary: AU. Riku is spending his days taking care of the five Strife boys and their little sister when a long lost older brother shows up to take his place. Something is wrong and Riku must work his hardest to protect them. Aqua/Terra, maybe roxas/namine, Sokai
1. Prologue

A/N: this isn't actually a new story, it's actually just moved over from my DA account. But I prefer to keep all my more mature stories on this account.

Prologue

The shadows cast over the room were thick and the icy air smelt of chemicals. A balding man sat upon a metallic throne as a young brunette man walked towards him in a slight daze, his amber eyes shined in the lack luster lighting.

"After years of training and experimentation, you are finally free to walk among them again but you must bring them to me…" The balding man told the younger one who nodded and replied.

"Yes, master…" The younger man's body twitched slightly as the older one continued.

"You will be given new memories that will take up these past ten years, but my orders will always be there for when you feel the time is right." He watched the young brunette leave and the door closed as white-haired twins walked up to the older man.

"Master, what plans are these….?" Asked the twin with the long bangs coming down the sides of his face.

The balding man turned his head to face him.

"Well, my son. There was a man that ruined my studies and my life many years ago. I will show him that I am not a failure in the scientific field… I'll make him eat all the words he ever said about me and the pain will be ten fold once he sees what I have developed…."

The man let out a sinister chuckle as his two sons simply looked at one another.


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: yeah... hope you guys learn t like this story...

Xion: 15

Sora and triplets: 16

Ven and Van: 17

Riku: 18

Terra and Aqua: 19

Ages are totally screwed up, sorry. It's an AU ok! ~~~~~

Chapter 1

"Sora, Ven, Rox, Van, Anti, Xion! It's time to eat!" Riku called up the stairs of the large mansion as he fixed the knot in his apron strings and headed back to the kitchen. He pulled the black silk ribbon, which he had gotten from Xion for his birthday, out of his hair. He often used the ribbon to keep his long silver hair in a pony tail when he was either cooking or cleaning around the Strife's house. He had been hired by Cloud and Tifa Strife to watch after their children while they were away fighting a war in another country, being Sora's best friend he gladly took the job. Riku heard several pairs of feet rushing down to the dining hall as he brought trays of food to the table. He placed the plates down as the children sat around the table.

"Thanks, man. It looks great!" Sora told his older friend as he began to dig in.

"Yes, thank you." Ventus said with a smile.  
Vanitas only started into his food without thanks while Roxas and Anti, the most silent of the group, nodded and smiled to Riku.

"Thanks so very much, Riku!" Zion squealed and hugged him as he put her glass of apple juice down on the table in front of her, his cheeks turned a light shade of pink and didn't notice a pair of amber eyes peering at him.

"Hehe, you're welcome guys… Enjoy!" Riku said with a smile and a slight wave as he headed back to the kitchen to clean up his cooking mess.

"Wow! Riku's spaghetti is really great today!" Xion piped up and all but Vanitas nodded

"I've had better…" He snorted and slurped up a couple noodles into his mouth. Ventus sighed at his purple-haired twin and shook his head then turned to Xion.

"Xion, I got a call from mom today. She finally said it's ok for us to get a cat, isn't it cool!" Xion's eyes lit up with joy as she replied.

"Really, Ven! Can we go get one today!"

"Yes, my friend Aqua from next door is coming over to drive you, me and Anti to the pound today to pick one up. Sora and Roxas wanted to come but they didn't get their homework done like Anti here did." Ventus told her as he ruffle the hair of Sora's black-haired triplet. Anti was a mute little boy that looked just like Sora but with black hair and yellow eyes, he always wore black and purple and had strange pitch black skin and claw-like nails. Their parents had taken him to many different doctors to find out what was wrong with him but none of them could find anything. By now all the kids were finished with their food and were picking up their plates to save Riku some work, Sora, his triplets and Xion offered to get Ven and Van's plates for them.

"Vanitas, what is your problem? You're always so negative to Riku even after he accepted our parents' offer to take care of us!" Ventus growled angrily in a harsh whisper, so the younger ones wouldn't hear, as he walked over to his twin. Vanitas simply picked up some spaghetti between his thumb and pointer finger, leaned back his head and plopped it into his mouth in response to Ven. Ventus' face started to turn red with anger at his brother who opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue, exposing the chewed up noodles and meat sauce to Ventus.

"Vanitas!" Ven growled at him then all of a sudden Vanitas spat the chewed noodles into Ventus' face and stood up from his chair.

"Oh stop acting like you actually care, Ven…." He started to walk away towards the living room then turned to look back at Ventus.

"I just don't like someone his age hanging out with them… Oh, and wipe that crud off your face. All the animals will attack you at the pound…" Vanitas stuck his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and sauntered off to the living room to wait until they were gone, leaving Ventus very confused.

~~~~~A/N: Man! Look at those ages! Cloud and Tifa must have been busy!


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Bye guys! Off to disneyland!

Chapter 2

From his place on the living room couch, Vanitas could see Ventus, Anti and Xion get into Aqua's car and drive away as he watched them through the large living room window. Slowly, Vanitas grabbed the TV remote and turned off the idiotic show he hadn't really been watching and got off the couch. He began to make his way to the kitchen where he knew Riku was more than likely washing the lunch dishes.

'C'mon, Riku…. Let's have a nice little chat…' Vanitas thought as he applied some soft pressure to the thin metal fame around his bottom jaw; he had messed it up some years ago in an accident and now needed the metallic frame as a brace. He was almost there when he stopped and headed up the stairs, there was something he had to take care of first.

~Aqua's Car~

Ventus turned to Aqua, a lovely blue-haired girl in her late teens, and sighed. She had been the love interest of his older brother, Terra, but that was before he had disappeared ten years ago. Ventus and Aqua often talked about all the crazy stuff he would do in order to show off to her. Aqua could see that depressed look in his eyes and decided to try and get his mind off of it.

"So, Ven… Tifa finally decided to let you kids get a pet, huh?" She asked sweetly, making Ventus look up and smile.

"Yup! Took her long enough! Xion and Anti have been looking forward to this for a very long time." He replied as he looked into the back seat at Xion who was talking to Aqua's little sisters, Kairi and Namine, as Anti gazed out the window in amazement. He could hear the young girls whispering amongst themselves.

"So… Kairi, Namine, I heard my brothers Sora and Roxas were acting like complete idiots the other day at school to try and show off to you guys." Xion whispered with a snicker as the other two girls giggled.

"So true, you should have seen Sora! He was all strutting around the cafeteria like he owned the place." Kairi replied with a smirk on her face as Namine went into a little fit of giggles.

"Yeah… Hehe, Roxas did practically the same thing."

"Oh, wow! My brother's are such losers! So… You girls ever gonna tell them that you like them…?" Both nodded in reply and Namine answered in words.

"Yup, we're just waiting for the right time. Hehe…!"

"So, Xion, do you have any secret crushes…?" Xion blushed at the question, there was no way she could ever tell them that she had a slight crush on her family's caretaker, Riku. Both girls giggled at the sight of the blush.

"Oh! So you do, I wonder who it could be!"

"Is he handsome?" Xion only nodded in reply as she sunk away from them. Ventus listened to what they were saying as Vanitas' words clawed their way back into his head.

'Could it be true….? Could Riku and Xion like each other….? He's much too old for her….'

~Strife House~

Vanitas stepped away from his little brothers' door with a key in his hand.

"That should stop those two from bothering my little chat…" His amber eyes focused forward as he headed back down the stairs towards the kitchen, he couldn't have his little brothers messing up what he was about to do. Glaring ahead, his bare feet brushed silently against the soft carpet. His parents had spent a great deal of their money on this house for their kids to live in while they were gone, and even though Vanitas would never openly admit it, he actually love both of them and what they did for their family very much. He was now at the kitchen and his feet slid silently onto the icy tile floor as he headed over to the counter that lay between him and Riku, who washing dishes.

~V*R~

Riku really didn't mind washing dishes for the Strife children since they always cleaned them off so well before handing them to him. Suddenly, Riku heard something behind him making him quickly turn around, he was not happy to see that Vanitas was less than three feet from him with a hand on the counter. Not letting his dismay show on his face he tried to strike up a conversation with the boy.

"Hey, Van, what's up? Do you need somethi-…?" Riku's voice trailed off as a slightly creepy smile slid over Van's face as his hand reached what it was looking for, a long bread knife with jagged edges. Ever since he was a kid, Riku could hold his own in a fight but this child scared him. Everyone knew that Vanitas was not mentally right, he was extremely sadistic and loved to torture living things just so he wouldn't be bored.

"Yeah, Riku, I do need something from you…" The words slid out darkly as the boy's finger curled around the handle of the bread knife, causing it's blade to reflect some light onto the purple high-lights in his black hair as pulled the knife to himself. Riku swallowed hard at the lump in his throat that his nerves were creating.

"Really, like what?" Riku's eyes grew wide as Vanitas pressed the hooked edge of the knife to Riku's stomach, grinned happily and then brought the point up to run it down the length of Riku's throat, adding a bit of pressure in order to draw a few drops of the older boy's blood.

"Like how about keeping your hands off my sister that is unless you wan-!" Vanitas' creepy speech was cut off by the sound of the door bell. Vanitas hissed at it and drew away the blade thinking his family had come back. Riku quickly uncurled his soapy fingers from the sink counter and bolted to go answer the door as fast he could. Vanitas glared as he watched him go and gently put the knife back on the counter then headed out to follow Riku.

"I'm coming!" Riku's almost sounded too desperate as he reached for the handle and quickly pulled open the door, he was greeted by the sight of a smiling young man with brown hair.

"Hi, there! This is still the Strife residence correct?" The handsome young man asked gleefully, but before Riku could find his voice Vanitas found his own.

"Terra?"


End file.
